Posted on 05/02/2011 7:15:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Where has Osama bin Laden been for the last 10 years?
That is a question that most of us want answered because of where he was found; living comfortably in a huge mansion in a city with a large Pakistani military base and in an area where there were many retired Pakistani officers.
Abbotabad is about 80 miles from Islamabad and is hardly "remote." It is considered a suburb of the city and has a population of 80,000.
It is very possible that sometime in the last couple of years, bin Laden fled from the rugged Northwest Frontier Provinces because our drone strikes were hitting al-Qaeda leadership cadres with stunning regularity. In this, we were getting good cooperation from the Pakistani government and their intelligence service, the ISI.
But bin Laden's move into Abbotabad raises questions of his collusion with the Pakistani military and ISI. It is believed the ISI helped facilitate his escape from the box we had him in during the Tora Bora operation in 2002 so it is not a farfetched idea to contemplate the same kind of assistance given the terrorist when it became too dangerous for him to hang out in the tribal areas.
President Zardari of Pakistan is in a bind. He does not control the military as most presidents in other countries do. The military/intelligence apparatus is a separate power center in Pakistan and they possess the national security and foreign policy portfolios. It is clear that despite the White House trying to give Zardari a fig leaf by announcing Pakistani cooperation with the operation, the fact is, they were never privy to the details and didn't know when it was going down.
We are giving $7 billion in aid to these folks over the next 5 years. I think it would be nice if we discovered who, if anyone, in the Pakistani military establishment assisted the world's number one terrorist in hiding from American justice and if that cooperation with bin Laden goes all the way back to 9/11.
It sure does pass the test you think he was under protective custody. Just like how Omar Saeed Sheikh (the fellow who killed Daniel Pearl) remains in jail.
And we’re supposed to believe that this huge complex went unnoticed by the Pakistanis for 5 years?
“protective custody”
Interesting theory. If that is the case it would have to be with the blessing of the US. No way paki wants to risk so much aid/$. And that means it could be a huge double cross by the US to get OBL out of hiding.... I doubt our current leaders could pull that off.
More likely scenario. OBL has set up all kinds of ghosts, false leads and dead ends. He’s had 10 years to think about it. Money, motivated followers. Time. Think about it. I’m half expecting a new OBL video soon. Except I doubt that he looks like himself anymore. I sure wouldn’t.
One thing for sure though, the official story is just to stupid.
Osama probably left Afghanistan long. Maybe even before US operations started. About the protective custody bit, would the US want to go the whole hog? For one there’s only limited proof. Everyone knows that Osama was in Pakistan and also had proof-but that’s not easy to verify. Would the US go to war? impose sanctions? Highly unlikely. Pakistan is a mess. A rational mess at that.
About risking aid; look at it this way. Osama is no longer relevant in the practical sense. Al Qaeda and terror inc. are too fragmented. He is at best a figurehead. Trading a figurehead is a small price to pay for a (rather) desperate US president who wants to get out of Afghanistan. And we all know what Pakis would like to do once the GIs leave Kabul.
The Pakistani army and ISI are far more competent and effective than many in the West think. They would have tracked Osama down within an hour if they wanted.
Didn’t say Bush KNEW...said Bush didn’t try hard enough. We KNEW he was in Pakistan. EVERYONE knew he was in Pakistan. I am saying we did not lean on the Paki’s hard enough. You do not REWARD people when you know they are screwing you. At least I don’t.
This “complex” was built about 5 years ago, and it was known locally as the “Waziristan Mansion,” because the mysterious builder was from Waziristan (ding, ding, ding?). Clearly the Pakis, or at least the ISI, knew all about it even then.
It was apparently identified by the CIA under Bush, but at the very end of his term, and the CIA continued to follow up on it. So if anybody deserves the credit, it’s Leon Panetta, I suspect.
5 years ago Musharraf was playing much more US-friendly.
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